One of my favorite
Disney characters is Li'l Bad Wolf, an unfortunately not very well known character who never appeared in an animated feature. Yet he was apparently popular, judging from the number of appearances he made in Disney comics. He was never a headliner, but had almost as many stories as
Mickey Mouse and
Donald Duck. Created by
Chase Craig and
Carl Buettner, Li'l Bad Wolf's troubles began in
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #52 (January
1945) and continued for many years.
Li'l Bad Wolf is the son of the
Big Bad Wolf. Like most Disney characters, his mother does not appear. The wolves are portrayed like
hillbillies, wearing overalls and crooked
stovepipe hats. The Big Bad Wolf is a shiftless, good for nothing, lazy wolf who only expends energy chasing after the
Three Little Pigs. And his name is - get this - Zeke Wolf. Zeke wants to raise his son to be just like him, but is fortunately too lazy to do any actual parenting. Li'l Bad Wolf must do all the chores while shaking off Zeke's pernicious influence. He also has to save his best buddies, those very same Three Little Pigs, from becoming dinner while also not doing anything to harm his dad, who is, after all, kin. An epic dilemma which should by all rights end in blood and nightmares was quite successfully played for laughs for years.
Li'l Bad Wolf is friends with
Huey, Dewey, and Louie and other characters in the Disney stable and is a member of the
Junior Woodchucks. His cousin Izzy and uncle Zeb appear from time to time.
Some people speculate that Li'l Bad Wolf was one of the titular "
Three Little Wolves" in the
1936 animated Disney cartoon, though it seems farfetched.
Panamaus tells me he thinks he's seen a different toon featuring Li'l Bad Wolf, so if anyone can identify it, let us know.
Incidentally, most of the
Google hits for Li'l Bad Wolf are about his long discontinued
Pez dispenser.
Sources are http://www.toonopedia.com/lilbad.htm, http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/lilwolf.html, and my own memory.